Consumers and manufacturers are increasingly concerned with the environmental impact of all products. The effort towards environmental impact awareness is a universal concern, recognized by government agencies. The Kyoto Protocol amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) currently signed by 156 nations is one example of a global effort to favor safer environmental manufacturing over cost and efficiency. Especially when applied to goods like, personal care, cosmetics, therapeutics and cosmeceuticals, consumers are increasingly selective about the origins of the products they purchase. The 2004 Co-operative Bank's annual Ethical Consumerism Report (www.co-operativebank.co.uk) disclosed a 30.3% increase in consumer spending on ethical retail products (a general classification for environmental safe, organic and fair trade goods) between 2003 and 2004, while total consumer spending during the same period rose only 3.7%.
One of the single greatest environmental concerns to consumers is the global warming effect and greenhouse gases that contribute to the effect. Greenhouse gases are gases that allow sunlight to enter the atmosphere freely. When sunlight strikes the Earth's surface, some of it is reflected back towards space as infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases absorb this infrared radiation and trap the heat in the atmosphere. Over time, the amount of energy sent from the sun to the Earth's surface should be about the same as the amount of energy radiated back into space, leaving the temperature of the Earth's surface roughly constant. However, increasing the quantity of greenhouse gases above the quantity that existed before the rise of human industrialization is thought to increase the retained heat on the Earth's surface and produce the global warming observed in the last two centuries.
Carbon dioxide is singled out as the largest component of the collection of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The level of atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased 50% in the last two hundred years. Any further addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is thought to further shift the effect of greenhouse gases from stabilization of global temperatures to that of heating. Consumers and environmental protection groups alike have identified industrial release of carbon into the atmosphere as the source of carbon causing the greenhouse effect. Only organic products composed of carbon molecules from renewably based sources such as plant sugars and starches and ultimately atmospheric carbon are considered to not further contribute to the greenhouse effect, when compared to the same organic molecules that are petroleum or fossil fuel based.
In addition to adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, current methods of industrial production of propanediols produce contaminants and waste products that include among them sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, phosphoric acid, tartaric acid, acetic acids, Alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transitional metals and heavy metals, including Iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, silver, molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium, chromium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, rubidium, and platinum (U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,434,110, 5,034,134, 5,334,778, and 5,510,036).
There is a need for all manufactures to provide products reduced environmental impacts, and to especially consider the carbon load on the atmosphere. There is also an environmental advantage for manufacturers to provide products of renewably based sources. Further, there is a need for a proven solvent which is produced with no or little increase to the present carbon-dioxide level in the environment.
Published U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0069997 discloses a process for purifying 1,3-propanediol from the fermentation broth of a cultured E. coli that has been bioengineered to synthesize 1,3-propanediol from sugar. The basic process entails filtration, ion exchange and distillation of the fermentation broth product stream, preferably including chemical reduction of the product during the distillation procedure. Also provided are highly purified compositions of 1,3-propanediol.
Personal care, animal care, cosmetic, therapeutic, pharmaceutic, nutraceutic, aromatherapy, fragrance and cosmeceutic formulations benefit from glycols in the compositions as, for example, surfactants, humectants, solvents, neutralizers, emulsifiers, preservatives and/or fragrance enhancers and fixatives. Typically the glycol component in personal care applications include propylene glycol, 1,3-butylene glycol, or 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol. Because of production costs and relative low purity, conventional 1,3-propanediol, though exhibiting properties equal to if not better than the aforementioned glycols, generally is not used in such compositions.
Moreover, in the context of personal care, animal care, cosmetic, therapeutic, pharmaceutic, nutraceutic, aromatherapy, fragrance and cosmeceutic formulations incorporating a botanical, vegetal, protein/peptide, marine, algae or milk extract, or fragrance concentrate or oil, consumers pay attention to the quality and environmental impact of the product. Currently, botanical, vegetal, protein/peptide, marine, algae and milk extracts, and fragrance concentrates utilize chemical solvents, such as propylene glycol, 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol, butylene glycol, dipropylene glycol, synthetic glycerin, and ethanol, for the extraction process. In many cases these chemical solvents are used in combination with each other. Despite the fact these chemicals are suitable solvents, they have an intrinsic disadvantage because they represent a petroleum-based component of an otherwise “all natural” product. Additionally, safety assessments of these solvents provide evidence that they can cause skin irritation. (Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel (1994) Final Report on the Safety Assessment of Propylene Glycol and Polypropylene Glycols. J. Am. College Toxicol., 13(6):437-491).
Essential oils extracted from plants are widely used cosmetic and personal care formulations. Colors extracted from plants are used in the food and non-food-industry. Medicinal plant extractions are being used for the treatment various disorders. Though several methods can be used for extraction of flavors, fragrances, colors, and active ingredients, solvent extraction is one of widely used method. Selective extraction of required ingredients, stability of the extracted ingredients, and separation of ingredients from unwanted solvents are key factors for extraction. When volatile solvents such as ethanol used for extraction of active ingredients, they need to be removed before using the ingredients in formulations. When solvents are removed some of the active ingredients may not be stable and decompose.